


these are the places i will always go

by tosca1390



Category: Psy-Changeling - Nalini Singh
Genre: F/M, Gen, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 03:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8874370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tosca1390/pseuds/tosca1390
Summary: In the cool medical wing, with the lights soft and blue reflecting the early evening skies stretching across the mountains, she sits with the still and silent woman. She watches the rise and fall of her breath, holds her slim, paper-smooth hand between hers. Alice’s brief moment of lucidity gave them all the key by which to understand Sienna’s powers. Sienna cannot help but wonder how she appeared.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magisterequitum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magisterequitum/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide! I hope you enjoy this little treat, and I hope it fit within what you were looking for.

[-]

Sienna likes to sit with Alice, before she awakens for good. 

In the cool medical wing, with the lights soft and blue reflecting the early evening skies stretching across the mountains, she sits with the still and silent woman. She watches the rise and fall of her breath, holds her slim, paper-smooth hand between hers. Alice’s brief moment of lucidity gave them all the key by which to understand Sienna’s powers. Sienna cannot help but wonder how she appeared. 

“Here again?” Lara whispers from behind. 

Sienna turns her head to face the healer, her uncle’s mate. A woman who always treated her as nothing less than a member of a family, even if that family had no name until recently. “I’m sorry. Did you need to work on her?” she asks softly. 

Lara shakes her head, her dark curls loose at her shoulders. “No. Just peeking in. I like to sit with her, too,” she says with a warm smile. She comes to stand at Sienna’s chair, resting a warm hand on her shoulder. 

Sienna leans into the touch, maternal and soft. She needs to head back to her quarters soon. Hawke will be looking for her. Even now, she can feel him through the mating bond, a persistent awareness she hopes will never grow old or routine. 

“I hope she can wake up one day,” Sienna says after a quiet moment. 

Sighing, Lara squeezes her hand. “Me too. She has so much life still to live,” she says wistfully. 

“Do – do you know how she got here?” Sienna asks, tilting her head up to look at Lara. 

Brown eyes blink curiously down at her. “Judd – “

“I know that,” Sienna says with a shrug. “I just – how did he know?”

Brow furrowing, Lara glances at Alice’s prone form, and then back at Sienna. “I didn’t ask. And then the battle – “

“It doesn’t really matter, I suppose,” Sienna interjects with a slight smile. “I just wondered.”

Lara leans down and presses a kiss to the top of Sienna’s hair. “We’re just glad she’s here. And that you are,” she murmurs. 

Wamrth blooms in Sienna’s middle. She touches Lara’s hand where it rests on her shoulder. “Yes. Me too.”

She leaves to find her mate and their dinner soon after, squeezing Alice’s hand in a moment of farewell. But she cannot help her curiosity. 

[-]

Hawke tells her it is the Ghost who found Alive; Judd will not reveal who the Ghost is when pressed. 

Sienna has no need for confrontation or grievance; she merely wishes to express thanks. 

She is a patient soul, and can bide her time.

[-]

Lounging in bed one morning, with Hawke snoring softly against the rise of her shoulder blade, Sienna thumbs through her datapad, skimming the news of the day. The simulated light is blue-gold with the rising dawn beyond the den. Her gaze snags on the headline concerning Kaleb Krychek and Sahara Kyriakus, and their bond, and – 

_Oh_. 

She’s a fool for not seeing it before. She skims the news article, her heart pounding against her ribs. Apart from what this means for the Net, for the Psy as a race, for the interconnection of the races – she now knows who she has to thank for her survival. 

Snuffling against her neck, Hawke tightens his arm around her waist and pulls her into the cradle of his chest. She loses her grip on her datapad and giggles. 

“I don’t like playing second fiddle to the world,” he murmurs gruffly, his voice a rumble on her skin and in her bones. 

She turns in the circle of his arms and snuggles into his chest. “Don’t be ridiculous. You could never.”

Hawke grins that sharp wolf smile and leans into kiss her, and she responds eagerly, her bare skin against his. The world will creep in soon enough. Here, in the warm space of their bed, it can be just the two of them. 

[-]

“I’d like to meet him,” Sienna says to Judd one fine and bright winter day, the snowfall fresh under their boots. 

Judd peers at her, face inscrutable. “Meet who?”

“You can’t use that face on me any longer,” she says with a shake of her head. She is a fully trained soldier who runs her routes and assists Pack as any member would, but she also has power in her veins unknown and she is the Alpha’s mate. She knows it will take time to be fully confident in her place and position and strength, but with those she trusts she can practice. 

“I want to meet Kaleb Krychek,” she says when Judd just continues watching her silently. 

His mouth twitches. “Ah.”

“I know he is the one who found Alice,” she says, picking her way along the path over the high ridge of trees. Alice, awake and alive and thriving even in a time not wholly her own. “I would like to say thank you.”

“I’m happy to pass it along,” Judd says lightly. 

“That isn’t what I asked,” Sienna says with a slight sigh of exasperation. 

Judd falls silent as they walk side by side through the lands that are a part of their hearts as much as Pack or their mates are. She still feels the pain of having scorched pieces of this beloved land, but she knows it will grow back twice as strong. Felix himself, the expert on horticulture, assured her of the resilience of the land. The sharp breeze bites through her scarf, but she finds the chill bracing as she waits for her uncle to speak. 

“The knowledge of the two of you together in the same area, if it were to get out, could be a maelstrom,” Judd says at last. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to either of you.”

“You would know. Hawke would know. I presume Aden, and perhaps Sahara. Need it get any larger than that?” Sienna asks. “I don’t mean to make a difficulty, but – “

“It’s your right,” Judd says. “To meet him and ask him of his motivations.”

She blinks. “I would say thank you.”

Judd shrugs, an easy physical gesture she couldn’t have pictured on him even three years ago. “I’d ask why, if it were me.”

“You’re best friends. You could ask him.”

Grimacing, Judd ducks under a snow-heavy tree branch. “Try to tell him that.”

Sienna rolls her eyes, glancing up as she hears the soft call of winter songbirds in the trees high above them. _Men._ “Could you just ask him if we can meet? Just for a few minutes.”

Judd stops for a moment, gazing out onto the land that is now their home. She lingers at his side, taking comfort in the winter wind, the bright sun, the snowy drifts across the ridge. These are small comforts, tangible details of a life she has decided to live with gusto and energy. She inhales deeply, feeling the sting of the cold air in her lungs and smiling. 

“I’ll ask,” Judd says after a long quiet moment with just the stillness of the forest around them. 

Sienna leans in and kisses her uncle’s cheek. “Thank you.”

He passes a hand over her windswept hair, touching her cheek with a gloved palm. It is affection she carries deep in her bones. 

[-]

Unsurprisingly, Hawke is grouchy about the meeting, when it is solidified. 

“I don’t like this,” he says for the twentieth time, an hour before the scheduled meeting appointment. 

Sienna tucks her hair into a ponytail and swings the ruby-dark fall over her shoulder. She moves into the living room from the doorway of their bedroom, walking to where he sits on the couch. Hawke has his elbows on his knees, his chin propped on his hands, staring moodily at her. His body and the bond between them radiates with tension. 

“Why?” she asks patiently, coming to a stop in front of him and linking her hands in front of her. 

He grimaces. 

“You can’t say you don’t trust him. He’s been given free passage in the White Zone and in DarkRiver territories. He’s Judd’s best friend,” she says, tilting her head. 

“It’s you. With a powerful Psy. I’m not rational about this, baby,” he growls. 

She sits down next to him on the couch and reaches for his white-knuckled grip. Bringing his hands between hers, she raises his knuckles to her lips and kisses the warmth of his skin. 

He relaxes a fraction, shifting his weight into. “I just – I worry,” he mutters. 

Sienna lets all the love she feels for him color their bond. The gift of his care, his concern, and his heart will never be less than a miracle. And she partially has Krychek to thank for the life she can lead. 

“I worry for you, too,” she says quietly. “But I just – I need to do this. It’s important.”

Breathing out slowly, Hawke nods. “Yeah. I know.”

He shifts to wrap an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into the curve of his embrace. She tucks her face into the strong line of his neck and smiles, stroking her hand over the soft material of his thermal t-shirt, feeling the beat of his heart through his ribs. 

“Thank you,” she says softly. 

She can feel his smile through the bond, and he kisses her temple. When she raises her head, he is right there, ready for a kiss to her mouth that almost makes her want to linger in their quarters and miss their appointment. 

“Come on,” she says at last, flushed as she touches her mouth and gets to her feet. 

He grins smugly but follows her lead. A silent reminder of their partnership in action. 

[-]

In person, Kaleb Krychek looks as expected. 

Dressed in all black, face passive, black boots impossibly polished. He is incongruous in the setting of the neutral wooded area they chose for their meeting, snow melting with the first touches of spring. He might project the idea of menace, but Sienna feels nothing but kinship. She remembers what it was like to hold herself so still, so stiff, keep her face as dead as what she imagined her soul was. 

However, she has Hawke Snow at her side. He does not touch her, but he keeps the full force of his love and affection in the bond they share. A reminder that she is more than the power that runs through her veins. 

In the same way, Sahara Kyriakus is at Kaleb’s side. With a welcoming smile and a midnight blue jacket, she is a reminder of his humanity that cannot be ignored. 

“Thank you for meeting me,” Sienna says with a slight smile. 

Kaleb nods, His cardinal gaze flickers behind her, to where Judd stands with Aden Kai. 

It is Sahara who speaks first. “I’m so glad we could make this work,” she says warmly, her bright blue eyes shining in the late winter sun. “I’ve wanted to meet you for months now.”

Sienna flushes, startled. “Oh. Well, yes. Me too.”

“How is Alice?” Kaleb asks after a moment, voice even. 

“She’s quite well,” Sienna says, biting the inside of her lip. _Of course_ he would ask after Alice. In any other situation, it would be a betrayal of his Psy upbringing. Here, he can ask freely, show his concern as he will. “She’s adjusting well to the new situation she’s in, and Sascha is working with her often.”

Nodding, Kaleb glances at Sahara. The hairs on the back of Sienna’s neck and arms rise, an indication of telepathic thought in action. 

Hawke shifts slightly next to her, his hand grazing the small of her back. 

“I wanted to thank you, for helping to find Alice. She’s been invaluable for understanding my situation and how to regulate everything,” Sienna says after a long pause. 

Kaleb meets her gaze, cardinal to cardinal. “I’m pleased to hear it.”

“I - I wanted to know why you tracked her down,” she says haltingly. 

Next to Kaleb, Sahara takes his hand in hers. He clears his throat. “Judd asked me to do what I could to help.”

“And I appreciate it. But – you didn’t have to,” she says, voice clear and even. “You changed the nature of the battle and the Pack – and our lives.”

As dark hair falling from its brushed-back style to settle across his brow, Kaleb blinks. “Yes.”

“I just – I wondered – “

“I, too, know what it is like to be controlled. To be used for abilities I did not ask for and would not want for others to possess,” he says bluntly. “If there had been something similar to help me when I was your age, I – I perhaps would have wanted someone like Judd to find it.”

Swallowing hard, Sienna blinks back abrupt tears. Kaleb’s face displays nothing, but Sahara tilts her weight into his, tightening her grasp on his hand. 

“You deserved whatever chance that could be provided for you. And I had the abilities and the resources to help. You need not feel beholden,” Kaleb continues. 

“I don’t,” Sienna says. “I only wanted to know why. And to thank you.”

He inclines his head in a nod of respect. “I suspect you and I have work yet to do together, Sienna Lauren Snow.”

“As we all do,” Sienna replied, nodding back. 

After a few moments of casual conversation, in which Judd and Aden joined in and Sahara invited Sienna and Hawke to dinner at the Krychek Moscow house (an invitation to which both Hawke and Kaleb blanched but Sienna accepted with pleasure), the meeting broke up. Teleporters disappeared, and Judd, with a hug for Sienna and a handshake to Hawke, headed back to the den. 

In the slushy snow, Sienna takes Hawke’s hand and they begin to walk through the land he knows like the back of his hand, and that she likes to see through his eyes. 

“So?” Hawke asks. 

Sienna smiles slightly. “I think we will grow to understand each other and work together quite well, Kaleb Krychek and I,” she says, her thoughts tinged with sadness. There was too much unspoken mutual knowledge between them. She is not interested in the past, but she knows Kaleb’s haunts him as much as hers does. 

Hawke furrows his brow. “Not too well, I hope.”

Laughing, she leans into his chest and presses a kiss to his frowning mouth. “Race you.”

A glint enters his ice-blue wolf eyes. “To where?”

“Anywhere,” she says, kissing him once more with a soft bite to his lip before she dashes off into the woods. His growl of a laugh echoes behind her. 

It is her life. She says a silent _thank you_ to Kaleb once more, for the chance to live it fully. 

[-]


End file.
